Scan barcode
mikewa14's review
5.0
full review here
http://0651frombrighton.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/the-heart-of-matter-graham-greene.html
http://0651frombrighton.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/the-heart-of-matter-graham-greene.html
deegee24's review
4.0
Greene's novel is mainly about the spiritual torment of its main character, Scobie, a practicing Catholic and colonial police officer stationed in an unnamed British colony in West Africa during World War II (based on Greene's own experience in Sierra Leone). Though I'm not Catholic, I found it refreshing to read a 20th century novel that shows the pain and guilt that can result from marital infidelity and other "sinful" behavior. Some have found Scobie to be a thin and unconvincing character, but I disagree. Greene rejects the stream of consciousness narration of the modernists, but his characters reveal themselves sufficiently through more traditional means. Nor do I accept George Orwell's claim that a colonial police officer could not experience pangs of remorse for his misdeeds. My main disappointment is that the colonial African setting is important only insofar as it is a place where corruption and criminality run rampant in the shadows, and where the boundary between the law and lawlessness is unstable. The book could just as easily have been set in the Vienna of The Third Man. This seems like a missed opportunity to say something more serious about the specific history and culture of West Africa or the last declining years of British imperialism.
mmuutthh's review
5.0
So there’s this actor, Graham Greene, who is Native American (Canadian, Oneida Indian), featured in movies like Dances with Wolves and The Green Mile, among other great roles. I’ve always liked him, and when I heard there was a well-respected author of literature with that same name, I just naturally assumed they were one and the same.
They’re not. Not at all.
Anyway, I found this book and upon realizing my mistake, I still figured the author is considered one of the greats, so I should check this book out. What’s it about? Oh, mid-20th century British men in colonized Africa, falling in love with another woman leading to bad things. So my mind, naturally thinks he falls in love with an African woman, right?
He doesn’t. Not at all.
The first pages are full of the N-word and it’s all very stuffy and British and I really considered not finishing it. But I was like, I’ve already gone through so much to get to this point. I think of the shame, and slight comedy, in my misunderstanding, and in the fact that I would have missed this piece of “the canon” (to be fair, I don’t know if this is considered Greene’s greatest work or if there’s something else that’s considered better) if I gave it up…
And that’s basically what the books about.
Seventy/eighty years after it was first published, and from such a well-regarded author, there’s so much that’s familiar in this story. I’m sure if there were a list of citations of everything that has stolen from this it would be very long. But it, besides its troubling colonialist, and racist (but actually not TOO racist) perspectives, and the fact that all the women call themselves “b*tches” for daring to ask the main character for things (like love or commitment or boat tickets to South Africa), is actually very engaging in seeing a character so at war with themselves over their beliefs and so unheroic in their simple desire to just be alone.
Anyway I liked it. If you can read the dialogue in the rhythm of old 1940/50s movies, I think that’ll really help get you through it.
They’re not. Not at all.
Anyway, I found this book and upon realizing my mistake, I still figured the author is considered one of the greats, so I should check this book out. What’s it about? Oh, mid-20th century British men in colonized Africa, falling in love with another woman leading to bad things. So my mind, naturally thinks he falls in love with an African woman, right?
He doesn’t. Not at all.
The first pages are full of the N-word and it’s all very stuffy and British and I really considered not finishing it. But I was like, I’ve already gone through so much to get to this point. I think of the shame, and slight comedy, in my misunderstanding, and in the fact that I would have missed this piece of “the canon” (to be fair, I don’t know if this is considered Greene’s greatest work or if there’s something else that’s considered better) if I gave it up…
And that’s basically what the books about.
Seventy/eighty years after it was first published, and from such a well-regarded author, there’s so much that’s familiar in this story. I’m sure if there were a list of citations of everything that has stolen from this it would be very long. But it, besides its troubling colonialist, and racist (but actually not TOO racist) perspectives, and the fact that all the women call themselves “b*tches” for daring to ask the main character for things (like love or commitment or boat tickets to South Africa), is actually very engaging in seeing a character so at war with themselves over their beliefs and so unheroic in their simple desire to just be alone.
Anyway I liked it. If you can read the dialogue in the rhythm of old 1940/50s movies, I think that’ll really help get you through it.
christinaalex's review against another edition
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
christajls's review against another edition
4.0
An engaging look at love - or "love" - and all its complications. Way more tragic then I expected it to be. Also shows you what happens when you don't take a vacation!
bkoser's review against another edition
Powerful. An extreme example of being nice versus being kind: Scobie damns himself and commits suicide to avoid leaving his wife or mistress. That's a new level of avoiding of confrontation.
Other novel this most reminded me of: Endo's Silence.
Scobie taking Eucharist with unconfessed sin is one of the most chilling passages I've ever read.
Aside: Gavin Ortlund has recently pointed out that memorialism (Lord's Supper as only a remembrance) is not even the historical Baptist view, let alone the view of the mainline Reformers. There are many real, hard-to-resolve differences between denominations, but this shouldn't be one of them.
Other novel this most reminded me of: Endo's Silence.
Scobie taking Eucharist with unconfessed sin is one of the most chilling passages I've ever read.
Aside: Gavin Ortlund has recently pointed out that memorialism (Lord's Supper as only a remembrance) is not even the historical Baptist view, let alone the view of the mainline Reformers. There are many real, hard-to-resolve differences between denominations, but this shouldn't be one of them.
ajreader's review
4.0
Read my full thoughts on Read.Write.Repeat.
Graham Greene's classic is one of those books that continues to grow on you after you finish it. There is so much depth that the reader continues to absorb long after closing the pages.
Graham Greene's classic is one of those books that continues to grow on you after you finish it. There is so much depth that the reader continues to absorb long after closing the pages.
exdebris's review
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
libertyskies's review
5.0
He knew from experience how passion died away and how love went, but pity always stayed. Nothing ever diminished pity. The conditions of life nurtured it. There was only a single person in the world who was unpitiable, oneself.